Associated RC10 B7D - The Off-Road Distraction

[Pylon80 3317]

11 minutes ago, Anthroxoid said:

@Pylon80 it looks awesome except I’m so old that I cannot stand a clear wing! Sounds like you’re already making really good progress on driving technique re: jumping so congrats on the successful build and to more fun ahead. Appreciate the photos. I wonder if I could put a front gearbox into one of these? 😜

 

cheers,

—XOID

Haha I always had a soft spot for 2WD vehicles and this one another example of something incredibly rewarding to drive. That being said I broke my own rule and bought an XV-02 just last week. I might make a build thread, still undecided.

I feel like I certainly made some progress on the driving side but I really only scratched the surface this far after only 2h of stick time. I hope to be able to turn 10 laps in a row without crashing and sticking to a good racing line by the end of the year. It's fun!

[Andreas W 2155]

5 hours ago, Pylon80 said:

Haha I always had a soft spot for 2WD vehicles and this one another example of something incredibly rewarding to drive. That being said I broke my own rule and bought an XV-02 just last week. I might make a build thread, still undecided.

I feel like I certainly made some progress on the driving side but I really only scratched the surface this far after only 2h of stick time. I hope to be able to turn 10 laps in a row without crashing and sticking to a good racing line by the end of the year. It's fun!

This is taking an exiting turn. Congrats with the XV-02- the way forward in the rally department. I hope for an inspiring build thread,  but fully understand if you skip it. 

 

I am beeing hard to myself not allowing to get anything more before the Carten M210 FWD and Optima Mid is built, fully equipped and ran in. I am telling myself that with the time cycle at Tamiya there is no ned to stress. The XM-01 or XV-02 RS will be around for 10 more years or so.

[Howards 586]

Great to hear this made it to the track. Fun isn't it?

[Pylon80 3317]

Small update

I have been able to go to the track 4 times and drove a total of 3.5hours of stick time. Not a lot obviously, but enough to start to get the hang of things a little bit. The most challenging part is to command myself to drive conservatively and stay on the ground rather than attempting jumps that I have neither the speed nor the skills to handle!

Sunday afternoon practice is a bit crazy with a lot of kids novice drivers doing "demolition derby" with short course trucks. If I crash, I am guaranteed to get hit multiple times while I wait for a daring soul to go pick me up (these marshals take big risks walking the track during practice, I can assure you!). But even when the car does get hit while lying on its back, I remind myself that it was my fault for crashing in the first place.

I hope to enter some racing this year at least to get a feel for it. At 25$ a shot I don't think I will be doing it regularly  Novice racing is not going to be terribly better than practice in terms of having people all over the place, but at the same time if I entered even the slowest class in 21.5 buggy I fear I would be in the way of better drivers (in addition to finishing last and getting lapped multiple times).

Over these 3.5hours I probably crashed really hard 50 times or more and I am baffled at not having broken anything on the car. The only exception is the rear wing which just cracked at some point and was threatening to rub on, and destroy, the expensive rear tires. So I replaced it with the same original part.

Another important "tip" is to attach the plastic bash guard on the front shock tower with a tie-rap, or like I did, with a band of Velcro. This guard is a great idea but it flies off and you then misplace it. For that reason a lot of people are not bothering with it which is just a shame.

Talking to friendly racers they pointed me to a bulleting board on the wall where some advanced driver posted his setup for the B7D! I cross checked it with Spencer Rivkins's setup (driven at that very same track - although different layout) as well as Ryan Harris (YT) who started driving a B7D as well. It is interesting that everybody seems to have things setup completely differently! So I think the wisdom here is to continue learning the ropes using the baseline setup. The one thing I will do is change my suspension settings to match the local drivers - still waiting on the oil.

I also realized that I still hadn't taken the time to put the car on my setup station, since it drove so straight and perfect out of the box. I was in for a good surprise!

My setup station is an expensive Hudy that I bought years ago and that is for 1/10 On-Road. It is not completely compatible with 1/10 buggies but can be made to work as follows:

The front axles have an annoying shoulder that prevents the setup station part to fit. It was easy to make a spacer out of 1mm styrene and get the hole to clear the shoulder by slowly reaming it to the correct diameter.

Then for the rear:

Now the shoulder is at least 5mm tall! Tamiya plastic bushings to the rescue! The fit is perfect.

So now I can check camber and set it to 1deg all around as a good/safe starting point for a low powered buggy.

For the steering, the transparent plastic plate for on-road is not wide enough for a buggy... grrr. A larger part exists on the Hudy catalog, but it would be over 60$ to get it to my door... No thank you. That is not a big problem however since I am running 0deg of toe. It is reasonably easy to eyeball that the two aluminum fixtures of the station are parallel to each other. I just wish I could check my steering throw properly but I can't. People did show me how they use the steering limiters and I might try that as well; they put a small shim under the steering limiting screw.

I am eager to go back to the track and see how it drives.

 

Next up: once I get the oil I am missing I will rebuild the dampers and perform some piston hole re-bore trickery Then I will keep practicing until I can lap consistently. Only then I might work on improving the steering response - it is very stable and easy to drive accurately right now but I feel that it is missing some steering in certain tight corners.

[clobbo 33]

Great build. 

I'm running a T6.4 and my daughter a B6.4.  Prior to the Leadfinger body coming out, I had painted a Cougar 2 body for her B6.4.. fit perfectly and it's got the nice rear-cab look to it.

[Howards 586]

I agree that whilst you are learning the ropes maximising your track time at the most minimal cost is the way to go.